WinNT/Linux hybrids?

[Robert G. Brown]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Krys Kaya-sar wrote:

>     <snip>
>
> > My systems are not setup to do this (no NFS) but it is certainly an
> > interesting proposition.  Can linux mount a partition, through an
> ethernet,
> > that exists on a WinNT box and vice versa?  Personally I would find this
> to
> > be a very handy option if it can be done.
> >
> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Phil
> >
>      <snip>
>
> answer: yes. i use samba to mount NT partitions on linux frequently. the
> main drawback i have had is that you loose most (ALL) of your security in
> the mount. the only security available that i have seen for this is a weak
> hybrid of the ntfs permissions and the mount options. all users on the linux
> system get the same permissions because the mount uses a single NT
> username/password to make the connection. i would like to see this updated
> to allow intelligent interpretation of permissions using the real
> username/password of the user on a per login basis rather than the current
> per mount basis. <hint, hint>

One can always arrange your beowulf with the NT boxes inside the head
node, which can be set up to act as a firewall.  Security then becomes a
matter of securing access to the head node.

I suspect that there is another way to do this -- let me consult our
sysadmin, who froths at the mouth a teeny bit over security issues but
provides NT users with access to their department file space.  I think
that what he does is export in the other direction -- export their home
directories as SMB shares from the linux box whereupon they are
mountable on the NT side only when properly authenticated.

As long as there is some common shared filespace, it shouldn't matter
much which end is the server, and since the actual disk used on the head
node should reside on the (linux) head to facilitate rapid writes of the
data by the actual parallel processes running, exporting from there to
NT makes more sense anyway.

   rgb

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu